Going Green Beyond The Grave: Sustainable, Biodegradable Coffins (VIDEO)

How long was it before you started living sustainably? Were you ten years old before you started recycling? Fifteen before you started using reusable bags? Twenty-five before composting?

It's hard to figure out how to make up for lost time, but there is... one thing. How about being sustainable forever? If you feel the need to be green in the end -- like the very end -- green funerals and green coffins are around for you.

These coffins are the antithesis of the funeral industry's usual rain-forest mahogany and steel caskets, which are held together by formaldehyde-infused glue and hermetically sealed to keep nature out.

They won't likely be getting a huge market share, but their existence demonstrates a pretty serious commitment to the environment from at least some of the population.

"It is composting at its best," said Beal, owner of The Natural Burial Company, which will sell a variety of eco-friendly burial products when it opens in January, including the Ecopod, a kayak-shaped coffin made out of recycled newspapers.

Biodegradable coffins are part of a larger trend toward "natural" burials, which require no formaldehyde embalming, cement vaults, chemical lawn treatments or laminated caskets. Advocates say such burials are less damaging to the environment.

Comments

[marignymitch]

05:37 PM on 09/09/2008

The nylon strap and the metal buckle aren't biodegradable. At least in Louisiana.

[sklfcats]

10:11 PM on 09/08/2008

Creamate!

[JBS]

11:22 PM on 09/06/2008

Seems to me making one of these is more energy intensive than the plain pine box my grand-daddy was buried in.

[Agentlady007]

10:38 PM on 09/05/2008

For Al Gore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wIeDQp-62Q

[KillTheMessenger]

12:36 PM on 09/09/2008

Al Gore never comes here, dear.

:-)

[Agentlady007]

12:39 AM on 09/05/2008

Good idea.

[Agentlady007]

09:51 PM on 09/05/2008

Let me clarify my comment if you will. Al Gore wrote to me about protecting the biomas for the future. This is an example of it. I think however, it may not be as good as mummification when in the days of Cleopatra, humans were known as Gods. Not only dust.

Where did we lose our way if this comes to this?

Here is a letter I received from the homorable Al Gore just a months ago talking about this very GREEN subject of BIOMASS:




Dear Agentlady007,

Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund and journalist Miriam Horn have just published a fascinating book called Earth: The Sequel - The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming.

The book tells the story of scientists and businessmen working on the front lines to solve the climate crisis, turning our planet's greatest threat into our greatest economic opportunity.

The book also explores breakthroughs in solar, wind, and biomass technologies, in addition to examining how we must reinvent everything from cars to concrete and replace our current outdated centralized electrical grid with a smart, multidirectional energy network.

You can buy your copy of Earth The Sequel by clicking here.

Thank you,

Al Gore


This link tells you about what Biomass is:
http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/portal/page?_pageid=76,15049&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
.it or the one following is the letter from Gore only months before this was revealed to the public:

[Agentlady007]

09:53 PM on 09/05/2008

Well, this Biomass link should work with this example of it:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/biomass.html

[larry278]

10:03 PM on 09/03/2008

Cemetaries are dead land which can't produce crops or be used for the benefit of the living. The earth is for the living. Our dead, decomposing bodies shouldn't be preserved. If our dead bodies aren't suitable to become fertilizer, maybe they have a place for our bodies in a sanitary waste disposal site. I rather doubt if cemetaries will be turned into farm land but why not? Fundie trolls have at it. Like it or not-dead bodies rot. Why persist in thwarting nature by embalming dead bodies & taking up space in a cemetary?

[KillTheMessenger]

03:10 PM on 09/04/2008

A grave site is not for the dead but for the living. If you don't understand the need to go to a place and be close to your loved ones, you have either never loved nor ever lost anyone. Probably both.

[larry278]

04:23 PM on 09/08/2008

That is one of the older lines in the funeral business. Try again, KillTheMessanger. BTW walk to a grave site; it is much better exercise than jumping to conclusions as you did in this comment.
You might want to try growing some corn at a grave site too. The ethanol from your corn could power your herse. If you are in the funeral biz-get a better, newer sales pitch.

[Treehuggindirtworshiper]

10:13 PM on 09/09/2008

I've lost a sister, both sets of grandparents and my mother. The only time I went to the cemetary was to bury someone. Not everyone needs a place to go to be close to dead person. Thats what memories are for. Cremation is about as green as you can get.

[KillTheMessenger]

02:43 PM on 09/03/2008

How about a sack and two guys with shovels (one guy to work and one to supervise)? Works for me. I really don't care that my body be well dressed and in a stretched out position while I decompose. Throw me in and put enough dirt on top so I don't smell.

:-)